Monday, March 20, 2006

Thank God for Frank!

He's sometimes harsh, blunt, scary to some, but Frank Hatchett tells it like it is. If you can't dance, you'll know it after attending one of his classes. How? He'll tell you so and then he'll help you do it right! As my daugher puts it ..."You have to be a special kind of person to take Frank's criticism and put it to good use." In other words, if you want it bad, you'll fix yourself! I think we are both greatful for his bluntness because there are just some people who others don't want to offend for one reason or another ... and that dancer just moves through life thinking he or she really has what it takes. Bluntness lets that dancer know they have to improve themselves because the are not up to standards or it kindly pushes them to get a new day job! In the end, Frank is really a very sweet guy .... who tells it like it is. :)

One of most humbling experiences for a dancer or dance studio is to venture out into the wide world of competitive dancing where they're not faced with the best and worst of their hometown, they're faced with the best and worst of the region or nation. You learn very quickly that you and yours are NOT the best dancers in the land! For those who don't get that message .... well that's where Frank comes in ... telling it like it is. After all, he's seen a lot and has been in the dance business since before time began. I don't often get to talk with him because whenever we're in New York, other mothers swarm him for advice about their little darlings. He's always polite and often very helpful in his advice which I'm sure by now he has repeated the same advice and enormous number of times.

The dancers who he has trained are really good. Of course they must be you say ... Well not all dance teachers produce good students. Some great dancers just don't know how to teach. Every dancer that I know danced with Frank has style and can really dance.

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